Gee and Haw

This week I have taken the time to get all the riding animals trained to know gee from haw. Gee is right and haw is left, apparently it comes from when the teamster is standing on the left side of the animals he command "here" or "git". So I just sat on their backs with a pocket full of horse cookies and gave them commands, rewarding them for correct responses. 7 gees in a row, 7 haws in a row, 7 gees, 7 haws, then start mixing them up. They all got it right away. No dyslexics in the bunch (except for the one on the back of the animal). After a few days I started asking for them to walk out and started giving them verbal directions. We now have "whoa" "walk" "trot" "back" "gee" and "haw" at our discretion. Talk about light cues!!! Now I want to start refining our turns with leg pressure by independent control of the rear and front feet. They all know the basic response, but they need for it to be refined.

Paisley is not yet quite old enough to be ridden, so her gee/haw training has taken the form of me sitting on the fence over her, or standing directly in front of her. She is such a greedy eater, a true cookie monster, that she tends to get excited and snap. Not a good thing in a draft horse!